D&H still had units in Reading and Lehigh Valley colors, nine years after arriving on the property, and D&H had several of their own liveries floating around, like the lightning stripes or the blue dip with yellow chevrons. The Guilford purchase resulted in a mixing of motive power, like a couple C424Ms heading to Springfield Terminal, and even more paint schemes on D&H rails: Guilford gray and orange, Maine Central orange and dark green, Boston & Maine light blue.
A U33C repainted into Guilford colors with D&H lettering at Binghamton. In the rear is a GP39-2 that was originally D&H and was then transferred to Boston & Maine by Guilford.
One of the D&H's ex-Lehigh Valley GP38-2s leads one of Maine Central's ex-Rock Island U25Bs and a very rare U18B "Baby Boat" in Maine Central orange and green as it approaches Binghamton on the former Erie mainline
A strike-era D&H train on the Southern Tier, a short train being run by management personnel, scabs, and non-union personnel in an attempt to try and keep some sort of revenue incoming. The trouble started on the Maine Central, when Guilford abandoned the Calais Branch, retaining only the section from Calais to Woodland, and then leased this branch to the obscure Springfield Terminal in order to get around Class I union agreements, since Springfield Terminal was a shortline. Workers were also not pleased with basically one third of the Maine Central being abandoned, a a large workforce reduction, and company headquarters being moved from Portland, Maine to Billerica, Massachusetts. When Mellon tried to break up the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees with a threatened 20% pay reduction and forcing them to purchase their own health insurance, things exploded on March 3rd, 1986. The strike spread across all of the unions on all of the Guilford Rail Systems lines, as well as a strike on the MBTA, which was operated by B&M under contract, and a sympathetic strike on neighboring Conrail. There was very real fear that union workers on railroads all across the US would strike in solidarity, and much concern was expressed to Ronald Reagan on this matter. Violence, sabotage, and vandalism ensued, further hindering a rail line hamstrung with worn out infrastructure and equipment.
Well this is crazy! A pilot made a crash landing on the RR tracks & first responders barely pulled him out before the remnants of the plane were destroyed by a train. 
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:Well this is crazy! A pilot made a crash landing on the RR tracks & first responders barely pulled him out before the remnants of the plane were destroyed by a train.
And once again hammering home my belief that the only thing small aircraft is good for is getting you up in the air and then attempting to kill you.
Rolling under the former Erie coaling tower in Oakland, PA, this looks like a D&H/Guilford train but is actually an NYS&W SeaLand container train, as evidenced by the NYS&W C430 (one of four on the Suzie-Q, and one of only 16 built) tucked behind the D&H and B&M power. With Guilford power pretty much at a standstill due to the strike, and NYS&W's new container trains going hammer and tongs, it made sense for Guilford to lease a bunch of their engines to the scrappy Susquehanna.
An odd mix of equipment at Conklin, NY in 1987. In the lead is an ex-Reading GP39-2, #7414, running long hood forward. It is followed by one of the Guilford's 35 "SD26s" that they purchased from ATSF in '85, which were an SD24 rebuilt at ATSF's Cleburne shops with 645 power assemblies and updated electrical system. After that is a road slug set that Boston & Maine built from two GP40-2s paired with a slug built from an ex-UP GP7.
Eleven years after the Reading ceased to exist, it's colors are still present on D&H #7418, shown passing the Bangor & Aroostook shops in Bangor, Maine. It is partnered up with a Maine Central GP38 and one of the Maine Central's ex-Rock Island U25Bs. The Guilford Rail System strikes started up again in 1987, when Guilford Rail tried to reorganize the system by selling all of their trackage off to Springfield Terminal, attempting to use the same loophole they did with the Maine Central's Calais Branch to get out of union agreements. Attempting to essentially turn an entire Class I into a shortline was frowned upon and labor relations fell apart again.
D&H GP38-2s teamed up with a NYS&W SD45 at Bainbridge, NY with a string of autoracks. Note that the big Guilford G has been painted out on the sides. That is because in 1988, thanks to essentially two years of service disruptions due to strikes and Guilford's tender ministrations, the D&H finally went bankrupt. That placed the north east railroad industry in a difficult spot though. Conrail was still the only other game in New York, and so the D&H couldn't be allowed to go out of business, nor could it be incorporated into Conrail, because then Conrail would have a service monopoly. So instead, the D&H was placed in receivership, with the New York, Susquehanna & Western as the trustee. On paper it was an odd couple, since the NYS&W was a pretty obscure regional line mostly centered around New York City and New Jersey, but it had interchange points with the D&H, and the NYS&W was on an upswing in business after Walter Rich had taken over in 1980, at New Jersey's behest, and was making a tidy profit with container trains out of the ports.
This resulted in a clever bit of business dealing regarding the NYS&W/D&H, Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Canadian Pacific. Norfolk Southern had tryed to buy out or merge Conrail, without success, and CSX was making their own bid for Conrail. Other than the NYS&W, who was much smaller, Conrail had a lock on NY/NJ Atlantic port traffic. The NYS&W, through the D&H, had access to Buffalo over the Conrail Southern Tier line from Binghamton west, where it interchanged with NS, via the old Nickel Plate main, and Canadian Pacific. CSX had interchange connections with NYS&W in New Jersey. The NYS&W was, at the time publicly traded, and Canadian Pacific began looking at NYS&W with the intent of buying it out and squeezing CSX and NS out. If CSX successfully merged with Conrail, they would have access to NY/NJ anyways, so NS made a deal with CSX and NYS&W president Walter Rich where the CSX and NS would give him the money to buy out the shareholders and then he could take the company private. He would play nice with NS and CSX and slam the door in CP's face, and in exchange, NS and CSX would lend or lease or finance motive power for NYS&W to make up the shortage. CSX's bid for Conrail ultimately failed, so they had the NYS&W option to fall back on.
In addition to the D&H's paint schemes (Lightning stripe, blue with yellow nose, blue with yellow chevrons, Guilford gray and orange) and the units still in Reading and Lehigh Valley colors, there was also units in NYS&W yellow and black, and they had secondhand or leased equipment in a variety of liveries, plus equipment lent by Norfolk Southern and CSX. Shown at Adrian, NY along the Canisteo River, the last two GP39-2s still in Reading green bracket power lent by NS, including a GE C30-7 in N&W black and a high hood EMD still in Southern black, gold and white.
A D&H Geep with help from a leased CSX GP30m, still in Chessie colors. CSX lent whatever they had on hand, which resulted in stuff like these GP30ms showing up. Granted, the D&H still had RS-11s and RS-36s kicking around, so GP30s weren't that out of place.
1988 also saw the retirement of the U33Cs. D&H sent them to GE for use in the Super-7 rebuilding program. The Super-7 program was GE's crack at a rebuilding market using U-boats, early Dash-7s, and even non-GE locomotives, leaving the prime mover, generator and traction motors intact, but rebuilding them with a Dash-7 electrical system, Dash-8 microprocessors, and GE's SENTRY wheel-slip control system. A market inundated with old secondhand EMDs meant the program really never got off the ground, and the D&H U33Cs were in the middle of the rebuild process when it was cancelled, resulting in them being scrapped.
Two D&H Geeps are mixed in with a borrowed NS C30-7, a National Rail Leasing SD45 and a Helm Leasing SD45.
Two brand new GE B40-8s and one of the D&H C424ms at Port Dickinson. Part of the deal with CSX, NS and NYS&W was that CSX financed a batch of B40-8s for the NYS&W. Once the big 4000hp GEs showed up on the property, they were seemingly everywhere
Both the D&H units still in Reading colors, plus leased power from Bangor & Aroostook and CSX (still in Chessie colors) and an NYS&W SD45 still in Burlington Northern green and white.
D&H #5003 awaiting final dispensation at Binghamton. The RS-11 was 30 years old when it was finally retired in 1990.
A D&H GP39-2 paired up with one of the NYS&W's ex-Long Island Rail Road high-hood Alco C420s at the Bevier St. yard in Binghamton. Although the D&H had leased 10 of the ex-LIRR C420s back in '76, the #221, as NYS&W #2010 was originally numbered, was not part of that batch.
A freshly-repainted #7403 after a heavy overhaul at Morrison-Knudsen's Mountain Top, PA facilities. CSX financed the overhaul of 4 of the ex-Reading GP39-2s. Why? Well, for starters, since CSX was using the NYS&W and the D&H to get access to NY/NJ ports, it helped for the D&H to have reliable motive power. But also, don't forget, Chessie Systems had purchased these GP39-2s and leased them to the Reading, which then were sub-leased by Conrail to the D&H. So CSX technically owned these machines, and there existed the possibility of D&H someday canceling that lease and returning them to CSX, and CSX wouldn't want complete wrecks back.
A weary RS-36 works a local freight at Conklin, NY in August of 1990. Delivered in '63, the RS-36s were the workhorses of the D&H fleet, as go-anywhere, do-anything machines, and their long lives were testament to the fact that the RS-36's poor sales wasn't due to them being an inherently bad machine. Even more impressive is that the #5017 still exists and still wears D&H lightning stripes, earning revenue by hauling passengers on the Ulster & Delaware Railroad.
In 1991, bankruptcy court put the D&H up for sale. Delaware-Otsego Corp., the owner of NYS&W, tried to place a bid on it, but lacked the financial horsepower to win out. Guilford Rail System also tried to bid on it, in hopes of taking back control of the D&H, as did several groups formed in hopes of keeping the D&H independent, but all were outbid by Canadian Pacific. Canadian Pacific had interchanges with the D&H at both Montreal and Buffalo and it would give CP reach into new markets in PA and access to Atlantic ports at NY and NJ. A D&H Geep in lightning stripes is shown surrounded by CP red and white Alcos at Philadelphia.
D&H RS-36 #5023 shifts cars at the Saratoga Springs yard, paired up with MLW RS-23 #8028. The RS-23 was similar to an EMD SW1200RS, an end-cab switcher with higher speed gearing and a larger fuel tank for use as a road switcher on branch line service. The RS-23 made 1000hp from an inline-6 Alco 251 engine, and were nicknamed "Rockets" by CPR crews for their fast acceleration.
For the first three years of D&H ownership, CP ran an employee picnic excursion to Oneonta. Shown in the lead is D&H GP38-2 #7309, paired up with Canadian Pacific #9007, an SD40-2F "red barn", and towing borrowed NYS&W passenger cars, including that impressive ex-CB&Q domed round-end observation car.
One of the C424ms awaits work at Rome Locomotive Works. The Alco RS-3 shop switcher is still in NYS&W colors and is coupled to the Norfolk & Western caboose that belongs to O. Winston Link.
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